


As The World Falls Down

by plastic_cello



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Baby-napping, Goblin King!Loki, Labyrinth AU, M/M, Underage!Bucky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 04:07:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6268939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plastic_cello/pseuds/plastic_cello
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The past two years had been a whirlwind for Bucky. One minute he had been a proud Brooklynite, living in a two bedroom apartment with his ma. And the next, he was now living out on Long Island in a traditional two-story house with his ma, her new slimy husband, and their howling baby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One :: Bucky, Baby Rebecca, & The Dysfunctional Family

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is surprising, but I hadn't seen Labyrinth until last night and I was inspired to write an AU involving Bucky and Loki. :)

* * *

 

**Chapter One :: Bucky, Baby Rebecca, & The Dysfunctional Family**

 

* * *

 

 

The past two years had been a whirlwind for Bucky. One minute he had been a proud Brooklynite, living in a two bedroom apartment with his ma. And the next, he was now living out on Long Island in a traditional two-story house with his ma, her new slimy husband, and their howling baby.

To be honest, he wasn't very receptive to the change. He had barely even met his step-dad Howard, before he then learned about the pregnancy and their plans to make the relationship official. Everything had been rushed, and no one had even consulted him on what he had wanted. They had just assumed a 'real family' was what he'd wanted, when all along he'd been happier beforehand.

All his friends were in Brooklyn. His network of support around the old neighborhood had been left behind too. So it really wasn't that much of a surprise that he spent most of his down-time alone now. But it was only recently that his ma gave him permission to have a dog, which she hadn't permitted before when they lived in the city.

Sarge was a German Shepherd that Bucky had rescued from the pound. He had one eye, but he was otherwise perfectly healthy and loyal to a fault. The two of them spent most of their time exploring the lesser traveled paths in the nearby parks; anywhere that would keep him out of the house and away from Howard and Rebecca.

Unfortunately, Bucky's obvious distaste of the family built around him didn't dissuade his ma from always seeking him out for babysitting duties. Because Howard insisted on going into the city nearly every Saturday to see his big and important friends, since he too claimed that he got stuck in suburban hell and he needed a break from the baby strollers and perfectly manicured lawns.

"Whose fault was it, you big jerk." Bucky grumbled under his breath as he slouched into the couch cushions as Howard and his ma rushed from one end of the house to the next.

Both adults were bedecked in their best clothes, as if they were going to meet both the President and the Pope tonight. Bucky couldn't help but roll his eyes; he knew how this song and dance went. They wouldn't be back until late, and Howard usually had a few too many drinks in him which made him louder than he already was. He also liked to call Bucky champ and Buck-a-roo then both of which he hated.

Making matters even worse, Rebecca started to howl like an animal possessed. Bucky flinched openly. He hated watching the baby most of all. Rebecca always cried; no matter what he did in an attempt to calm her down, she never responded very well. It was like she hated him just as much as he hated her.

The crying became louder and louder, followed by the sound of fabric whooshing and footsteps on the staircase. His ma called out to Howard, who responded a beet later although Bucky couldn't hear anything but a distant muffle. Then again he wasn't entirely invested in the conversation anyway to pay rapt attention to it.

"Here we go again, Sarge." Bucky slouched even deeper into the couch cushions, while Sarge whined at his feet from Rebecca's high-pitched shrieks.

Sure enough within seconds, his ma appeared with Rebecca propped onto her hip with an annoyed expression on her face. That was the usual nowadays too; his ma always had a complaint about him, and they generally didn't get along anymore.

Back when it had only been the two of them, they'd been close. Bucky could tell her anything without judgment being passed. But now, everything and anything he had to say was criticized or belittled since it didn't fit into his ma's story-book family.

"James Buchanan Barnes," his ma raised her voice above Rebecca's wails. "I've told you a hundred times already that that dog of yours has to be in the garage when we go out!"

"I don't know why he can't stay in my bedroom like he usually does!"

"You know why; your full attention needs to be on your little sister!"

"You mean so I can listen to her cry all night long?" Bucky shot back angrily, before giving the baby a hateful look.

That exclamation only exacerbated the situation further. Rebecca howled in an ungodly decibel, which even made his ma flinch. Sarge, for his part, whined again and cowered away from the demon baby that launched a preemptive strike against them all.

Bucky soon remembered whose lungs Rebecca inherited when his ma hollered at him to take Sarge to the garage immediately. And even though he wanted to argue the point further, Bucky wisely got to his feet all the same and slapped a hand onto the meaty part of his thigh to beckon Sarge to follow him out of the chaos that had enveloped the living room.

Luckily, Sarge leapt to his feet and followed Bucky out of the room. Neither one of them wanted to deal with Rebecca or Ma anymore. But still the whole thing was unfair; Sarge wouldn't have done anything to Rebecca, and Bucky would be forced to pay attention to her since all she ever did was cry.

Walking through the dining room and then the kitchen, Bucky came to the door that led into the cluttered garage. There was so much junk and mountains of boxes that neither his ma or Howard's vehicles could actually fit in there. So it ended up becoming Sarge's time-out room whenever the weekend came along.

Bucky had tried to make the space comfortable for Sarge, though. He had saved up enough money from his part-time job at the movie theater to buy Sarge a oversized doggy bed, which he covered with an old patchwork quilt and loads of squeaky stuffed toys for his amusement. His big metal bowls filled with water and food were already there and freshly supplemented an hour ago, despite Bucky hoping he could con his ma into letting Sarge stay in the house this time around.

"Wish I could stay in here with you." He grumbled as Sarge faithfully walked down the cement steps into the greater part of the garage. "I'll break you out soon, buddy. I promise."

With a final parting look at his only friend, Bucky shut the door and headed back the way he came. Howard had since come downstairs and he'd been given custody of Rebecca. Unsurprisingly, she was still crying her eyes out but at least Howard was wiping the snot from her nose with a polka-dotted handkerchief. Meanwhile, his ma was ranting about how unhelpful Bucky was being of late.

"We don't go out that often." His ma exclaimed. "But he fights me tooth and nail all the way. He's Rebecca's big brother, he should volunteer to watch her!"

"Come on, Win," Howard drawled. "He's sixteen years old. He rather be chasing skirts than staying home to babysit. See, I told you – we should find ourselves a girl to be doing this job."

The back and forth continued for nearly a minute, before his ma turned to snatch up her handbag from the coffee table only to see Bucky standing in the doorway. Bucky's only consolation was to see the embarrassed flush on his ma's cheeks for being caught red-handed in complaining about him. But other than that, there wasn't anything nice about what he'd overheard.

Finally he walked into the room, before he wordlessly held out his arms to Howard to take Rebecca from him. Howard looked on the verge of saying something to him, but he wisely chose not to in the end and he instead passed over the squirming, snotty-nosed baby to him.

"James, honey," his ma said, although Bucky had already locked his arms around Rebecca and was mounting the first step to go upstairs.

"You'll be back at midnight, I know." He called over his shoulder dismissively above Rebecca's cries. "And by the way if you really want to know, no one asked me if I wanted to move to crappy Long Island, and be a part of this stupid family anyway."

Bucky climbed the stairs and soon found himself on the second-story landing. He carried Rebecca towards the nursery slash guest bedroom which was across the hallway from his own room. He flipped on the overhead light, before he moved towards the small en suite connected to the room.

Rebecca continued to cry, which was slowly giving Bucky the migraine of the century. He wondered how she could sustain that volume and intensity for so long. But it soon became a secondary concern in comparison to wiping her dirty face off.

Leaning past the toilet, Bucky unraveled a trail of toilet paper before wadding it into his hand and dabbing as gently as he could to Rebecca's beet-red face. He really wanted to scrub the snot and tears right off her skin, but he figured that would only make her shriek even louder than she already was and he didn't want to push his luck.

Once Rebecca's face was as clean as it was going to get, he carried her back into the other room and laid her out in the antique crib pushed up against the wall. He turned on the mobile which twinkled to life with music, although even that didn't seem to settle her down any.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He scowled, before the distant sound of a car pulling away from the house came from the French doors that led outside onto the balcony. "You'd think you'd be tired from all that ungodly howling."

His only answer was another series of screeches that nearly lasted another ten minutes. But at long last, Rebecca finally shut her yap and the only sound was the groans of the old house. Bucky felt a wonderful sense of relief wash over him; it was about damn time already.

When he was certain Rebecca would stay quiet for a while, he stepped out of the nursery and went across the hall to his bedroom. He opened the door and left it that way, before he collapsed face-first into the comfy confines of his duvet that was spread across his mattress.

His entire body went limp, and he welcomed the silence. He now understood why people said silence was golden. Because it felt glorious at that moment, and his throbbing temples were thankful for the brief reprieve since he knew it was only temporary. Rebecca never stopped crying for very long, which made Bucky wonder if she had some kind of medical condition or something. Or maybe she just really hated him and she wanted to drive him crazy.

Turning his head, Bucky caught sight of a battered, little book beside him. The cover was a brilliant shade of red with gold-leafed lettering on the front. His dad had given him the book when he was five, about two months before he died of a massive heart-attack.

He reached out to trace the title with his finger; the elaborate swoop of the capital L and the consequent interconnected letters that spelled out _Labyrinth_. It was Bucky's favorite story; it was about the Goblin King who seemed to like to take squawking infants away to his kingdom.

"Wouldn't that be nice." Bucky mumbled, as he laid his hand flat on the book and shut his eyes.

Slowly, he dropped under a pleasant spell of sleep; although not before he thought of how wonderful it would be if someone came for Rebecca. Better yet if the Goblin King came for her; he really wouldn't miss her anyway.


	2. Chapter Two :: The Goblin King

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the interest and support!

* * *

 

**Chapter Two :: The Goblin King**

 

* * *

 

 

Bucky jolted awake rather abruptly. For a few disoriented moments, he couldn't pinpoint why until his ears became in-tuned with the high-pitched sobs across the way. The sound was an unwelcome one, but it really wasn't that unexpected either. He had known any solitude would only last so long.

"Damn you, Rebecca." He bemoaned, while he rolled haphazardly to the end of his mattress.

His feet fell unceremoniously to the floor, followed shortly by the rest of him. He slithered onto the old hardwood and blinked his eyes several times to regain some kind of equilibrium. He knew he hadn't been asleep for that long, but he had always been a heavy sleeper and it made waking up twice as difficult for him.

Rebecca's shrieks were pretty effective on bringing him back to reality, though. An entire pot of coffee couldn't even do that for him; hell, even if the house had been on fire, he would have had a hard time fully waking up in time to save his own hide.

Scrubbing at his face with both hands, Bucky let out a strained groan and inwardly cursed. He never thought he'd be put into this position. No sixteen year old boy would have suspected that they'd be their baby sister's bona fide nanny. But really he never expected to even have a baby sister either.

That was the heart of the problem for him. He never understood how his ma could be that damn irresponsible. How could she have gotten mistakenly pregnant with some guy's kid that she barely knew? Weren't adults supposed to know better than that? Well, unless it had been intentional and his ma flat-out lied to his face.

Nowadays a revelation like that wouldn't have surprised him. Bucky didn't have the highest of opinions when it came to his ma anymore. And if he were be honest with himself, he kind of hated her too for making this nightmare a reality for him.

The baby's cries continued to carry across the hallway, which finally got Bucky's ass in gear. He dragged himself onto his feet, before he was taken by a jaw-cracking yawn. It soon passed and he moved out of the sanctity of his bedroom into Rebecca's, where he found her grasping onto the spindles of her crib with a grubby tear-stained face.

It was a predictable sight, really. Bucky didn't expect any less, but for some reason it infuriated him all the same. Rebecca represented everything he hated about his life now. She was the number one reason why he was stuck in his current predicament.

The snot-nosed, little brat was the reason why he had to move. She was the reason for the strained relationship between him and his ma. It was all her fault, and he hated her more than he could put into words. He wished she would just disappear already.

"Will you shut up already?" He barked out harshly. "All you ever do is cry, cry, cry!"

His anger only continued to grow as he witnessed the scene. Rebecca only stared at him with scrunched up eyes with fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Her mouth hung open with wail after wail, never once stopping to catch her breath. It was like her purpose on Earth was to cry until Bucky lost his mind.

"Shut up!" Bucky slapped his hands over his ears, but the sound reached him anyway.

It would have been only too easy to run away at this point. He could grab his backpack, stuff it with all his important positions, take Sarge and be gone before midnight. No one would miss him, and he definitely wouldn't miss anyone either; he especially wouldn't have missed the banshee in front of him.

He could go anywhere that he wanted. He didn't need Ma anymore; he was sixteen years old. And she had already made her decision, so why should he stick around to muck up her perfect, little family?

Even with the possibility of running away dancing around in his head, Bucky stood in the nursery still. He couldn't say it had anything to do with loyalty, though. Maybe it was because he was a chicken-shit that couldn't even muster up the courage to leave his unhappiness behind. Or maybe it was because he wanted to stick around to make everyone around him miserable. Whatever the reason was it seemed irrelevant in that moment.

"I hate you!" Bucky dropped his hands from his ears. "I wish you were never born!"

Nastier things were on the tip of his tongue, but he managed not to say them out loud. He didn't see why not; it wasn't like Rebecca would understand them anyway. And besides, wishing someone to never be born was pretty brutal in its own right.

"I wish the Goblin King would take you!" He exclaimed childishly. "He could have you! I'd let him take you without any trouble!"

His rant continued in its rapidity, although much of it was lost in Rebecca's ongoing tantrum. Even he didn't know what he was saying at one point, except that he kept calling to a fictional character to kidnap his baby sister and for good. But he already knew that wasn't going to happen; he was too old to believe in fairy-tales and magic.

Throwing up his hands in frustration, Bucky turned on his heel to find solace in his bedroom. He nearly bolted across the hallway, before he flung himself like a rag doll onto his bed again. His whole body jolted from the impact, and he let out another scream into the heavy fabric around him as if that would magically stop Rebecca from crying.

That's when it hit him – Rebecca wasn't crying anymore.

It took a moment to process the sudden silence. One second the air was filled with sobs, and the next it had gone almost deadly quiet. That was unnatural; Bucky knew since he was practically certified in Rebecca Stark's crying attacks. He'd lived through enough to know them pretty well.

Slowly, Bucky lifted his head and strained his ears. There was nothing to be heard, though. It was like a vacuum had sucked all the sound out of the house. And there was a lingering sense of wrongness that was attached to it, which was entirely different to half an hour before when Rebecca quieted down.

"Rebecca," he called out, before he shifted until he sat up in bed.

The baby's name hung hollowly in the air. It made Bucky's skin prickle uncomfortably, and he scrambled to stand in order to investigate. He strode back into the nursery while his eyes zeroed onto the crib that had been previously occupied. But to his alarm it was empty. It was empty!

Panic started to bubble in the pit of Bucky's stomach. There was no way that Rebecca could have gotten out of her crib; she was too young to become some kind of escape artist. She couldn't even walk, let alone climb out of her crib without a sound. He would have heard it.

Taking a step forward, Bucky was about to call out for Rebecca again until he saw some movement amid the tangled baby blankets. It happened within a blink of the eye, a roll of a body that moved into the corner of the crib and disappeared out of sight.

That didn't make any sense, though. It had been too small to be Rebecca, and how in the hell did it just disappear like that? How in the hell-

Loud clicks and clatters enveloped the room, which made Bucky turn around almost violently to find the source of the noise. It sounded like the dresser drawers were being opened and closed, and the rustle of fabric. But there was nothing to be seen, and he was honestly trying to downplay what he had thought were gleeful, little chuckles amid the other sounds.

"Rebecca," he called out meekly, seized with an unshakable terror.

He turned around again to face the crib, and that's when he noticed a shadowy figure behind the French doors; which was soon followed by a rapid pecking on the glass. He let out a surprised cry, before taking a step back. But that didn't do much in terms of protecting himself at all.

The doors were thrown open by a howl of wind, and the thing from the outside world flew right at him and swooped around his head like it were circling its prey. Bucky threw up his arms to ward away the possible attack by what he soon recognized as a barn owl, and that's when things got even stranger than they already were.

The owl flew once more around his head, before it retreated back the way it came. Bucky clenched his eyes shut as the wind continued to blow, and he saw a distinct flash of light from behind his eyelids. He was almost too scared to see what was going on. In a way he didn't want to know, but no one could ever accuse James Buchanan Barnes of being a coward even when he felt like it. So he slowly opened his eyes and he was alarmed at what he saw.

There was a man on the threshold to the balcony. He was dressed in some kind of elaborate garb only seen on royalty in fairy-tales. He had a long black cloak with a harsh upturned collar that looked almost like a vampire's. And the rest of his ensemble was equally as dark and mute, beside a few golden studs that ran up his leather trousers, and a flash of green fabric sewn in sporadic places on his person.

The man's face was pale and sharp, but regal in its own regard. His hair was as black as his clothes, and it was smoothed back in waves that fell just below his shoulders. But the most stunning part of him were his emerald colored eyes, contrasted by black and gold make-up around them.

Bucky stared dumbfounded at the man. He didn't know what to do or even what to say. The night had taken an unexpected turn, and he was suddenly hit by the realization once more that Rebecca was not in her crib like she should be.

"Rebecca," he repeated again, temporarily shifting his gaze back to the crib.

"You won't find her there, I'm afraid." The man said in silky smooth voice. "I've already taken her per your request."

The statement hung uncertainly in the air between them. Bucky opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again although he didn't know what to say. What did he mean that he'd taken Rebecca per his request?

It took some time to absorb that realization, and when he did he almost laughed. There was no way that this was happening. He was having some kind of fever dream; there wasn't any other way to explain it. Because how else could some kind of Dracula knock-off appear in the nursery, exclaiming he had abducted Bucky's baby sister after he wished for him to?

"I must be dreaming." Bucky slapped his hands against his cheeks, as if that would wake himself up. "This isn't happening."

"You aren't dreaming at all, James." The purported Goblin King smirked. "Oh no, I've taken that wretched child away for you. She will no longer bother you anymore."

Bucky couldn't withhold his laughter anymore. It bubbled out of him loud and obnoxious, while he shook his head in disbelief. He knew he had to be dreaming. There was no such thing as magic and goblins or anything of the sort.

Before he could verbalize his disbelief once more, the Goblin King held out his hand and in the center of his palm was a crystal orb. On first sight, there wasn't anything fantastical about it; Bucky had seen paper-weights with that similar size and consistency. But it soon flickered like a projector had been switched on inside of it.

The footage was indecipherable from his vantage point, although Bucky deduced it might have been a preview into his future without the hassle of Rebecca's presence. He swallowed the lump in his throat and peered up at the Goblin King for some kind of clarification.

"This is a gift for you, James." The Goblin King masterfully rolled the orb along and under his fingers several times, until it returned to the palm of his hand. "Once you accept it, you will forget all about that squawking babe. You'll have the peace that you've so desired for so very long."

Bucky looked from the Goblin King to the crystal orb and back again. Could this honestly be real? Could he have a life without Rebecca again? And could he chalk up the past two years as nothing but a sweat-drenching nightmare?

There was no doubt about it – he wanted Rebecca gone. He hated her persistent screaming. He hated how she was the first chain in a long link of unhappiness in his life. And he hated that she was probably the reason behind why his ma didn't love him anymore.

If he accepted this gift then all of the bad would go away. Maybe even Howard would disappear out of their lives for good since nothing was tethering him to them anymore. Everything could go back to how it used to be. It would just be him and his ma.

Slowly, Bucky reached out for the orb. His heart was pounding wildly in his chest, and the blood had rushed to his ears. He could have it all if it wasn't a dream. He could get his old life back, and yet...yet he found his hand stopping before he could reach out and snatch the orb from the Goblin King.

"No," he breathed out shakily. "No, I can't."

Despite how much he despised Rebecca, he couldn't do it. He couldn't trade her away to the Goblin King. He had summoned him somehow with how angry he'd been, but he couldn't just let some stranger take away Rebecca and do god knows what to her. He wasn't heartless.

Licking his lips, Bucky withdrew his hand and looked up at the Goblin King. He didn't know what he expected to see on his face, although there weren't any telltale signs of emotion on his smooth, porcelain chiseled features; there was nothing at all.

"I'm offering you everything that you've ever wanted." The Goblin King said.

"But I can't do it. She's just a baby."

"Well, that certainly poses a problem." The Goblin King closed his hand around the orb, causing it to disappear from sight.

Bucky blinked several times, before he realized that maybe things were far more complicated than he had hoped they would be. He figured if he rejected the orb then he would get Rebecca back in return. But with a quick recollection of the fairy-tale, he knew it wouldn't be that easy. Nothing in story books ever was.

"Where's Rebecca? I want her back."

"Unfortunately, James that is not how it works."

"It does too!" Bucky felt another wave of panic overtake him. "All you have to do is give me back my sister, and we can pretend this never happened!"

The Goblin King merely shook his head. He didn't even try to explain why it was impossible. He didn't try to tell Bucky about some kind of magical binding contract or anything; which made the whole situation entirely more infuriating and scary.

"The babe is mine now." The Goblin King stated simply.

"No, she's my sister! I want her back! I made a mistake!"

"Oh, I don't believe that. I think you truly wanted her gone."

"I was angry, that's all!" Bucky stepped forward with clenched fists. "Please, bring her back!"

The Goblin King smirked, while the blackness of the outside world suddenly began to alter behind him. What had been the balcony that looked out onto the front yard, and been replaced by a glum, cloudless sky of scarlet that was pierced by the foreboding spires of a castle in the distance. Below the castle ran an endless maze made by black stone, smoothed over by the elements no doubt.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Bucky understood that this was the fabled labyrinth that he read about so many times in his well-beloved book. The labyrinth was an unsafe place; you could be lost in it forever in a feeble attempt to reach the goblin city and eventually the castle.

"Let's play a game then." The Goblin King turned to indicate the landscape behind him. "I'll give you a chance to save the babe, but you will have to make your way through my labyrinth first."

"That's all?" Bucky asked without any confidence.

"What fun would that be?" The Goblin King smirked darkly. "I haven't the patience to wait for you forever, James. So there will be a time constraint."

Once the statement had been made, an antique clock magicked into sight and hung in limbo within the Goblin King's reach. Soon the arms moved of their own accord until they settled onto their determined place on the clock's face.

"You have thirteen hours. If you do not make it through the labyrinth within that time frame, the babe will be mine for eternity."

"Thirteen hours," Bucky repeated uncertainly. "That'll be a piece of cake."

The Goblin King knew he was bluffing, of course. There wasn't any confidence behind that declaration like his previous one, although Bucky wished he could tap into his reserves that made him so damn charming around the old neighborhood. It was too late to rectify it now, though.

Without a response, the Goblin King stepped out into the desolate flat-land that extended infinitely on either side in front of the labyrinth's walls. Bucky followed him and soon felt the whip of tepid wind brush across his cheeks. He felt another tremor of fear overwhelm him, but he wouldn't turn back regardless of his reservations.

"Well, I'll see you in due time then." The Goblin King smirked once more at him. "Good luck, James."

In the blink of an eye, the Goblin King disappeared out of sight. Bucky let out a shuddering breath, as he really begun to absorb the situation he was in. Maybe this was a dream, but everything felt very real. And he now had the task of trying to find Rebecca within a thirteen hour period of time.

He could do this. He had to believe he could do this. After all, if he didn't believe in himself then how could anyone else believe in him?

"I'm coming for you, Rebecca." He murmured as he took the first step towards the labyrinth several feet away from him.

He could do this. He could save his baby sister.


	3. Chapter Three: The Labyrinth & Friends Are Made

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews make the world go 'round.

* * *

 

**Chapter Three :: The Labyrinth & Friends Are Made**

 

* * *

 

 

 

Reaching the perimeter of the labyrinth took only a matter of minutes for Bucky. He gaped in wonderment at the walls that trumped him by nearly twenty feet. They were clearly impenetrable, and it would have been foolish to toy with the notion of trying to climb up them all the way to the castle.

Each stone in the walls were perfectly placed, and any edge that could have been used as a foot-hold had long been smoothed out after years of exposure to nature. Even so, Bucky still reached out to trace the barely there grooves with his fingertips.

"Okay, I can do this." He said under his breath, although it sounded doubtful even to his own ears. "But now I have to figure out how to get into this thing."

Bucky paused in his tracks, in order to look up and down the wall for any kind of door that would permit him entry. Nothing was entirely forthcoming though; he even strained his eyes as if that would pinpoint a break in the wall. But he saw nothing helpful in the least.

That didn't bode very well with him, especially since he had gloated that getting through the labyrinth would be easy. So this might have been a ploy on the Goblin King's part to ensure that he'd never be able to save Rebecca in time.

Shaking his head dismissively, Bucky tried not to think of that. He would find a way into the labyrinth, and he would rescue Rebecca even if she was a sniveling little brat that drove him to the brink of insanity. He still wasn't going to abandon her here with some character that called himself the Goblin King.

He began to walk beside the wall again, looking for any inconsistencies that would constitute as a way into the maze. But the further and further he went along, the less and less likely he found that to be feasible.

"Fuck," he dropped his hand back to his side, and curled it into a fist.

As any hope for progress began to dim considerably, Bucky finally saw something, better yet someone, several yards away from him. The person was at least a head or so shorter than him, and they were in the middle of some kind of task that took up all their attention; although it was hard to tell what exactly that entailed.

Bucky found the tight compression around his heart lessen a fraction by the person's presence, and he didn't bother to hide his relief. He picked up his pace until he was in a full-on jog that led him up to a little, pig-nosed man with thick spectacles.

The man had a bottle in hand, which held some kind of clear substance. He pointed the bottle and sprayed at several undetermined creatures fluttering in the air. One, however, let out a high cry as it crumbled to the ground in a twist of delicate pale limbs.

Drawing up a foot away from the man, Bucky noticed that the creature that had been sprayed appeared to be harmless little thing. It floundered miserably in front of him, which made Bucky's mouth twist up in disgust. He hated bullies more than anything.

"Hey, that wasn't very nice!" He exclaimed indignantly, before he crouched down to scoop up the creature in his hands in hopes of soothing it.

That attempt was short-lived, though. He had only begun to hold the thing, before it turned its silvery head around and bit the inside of his thumb with sharp, razor-edged teeth. It bit him hard enough to draw blood, and pull an angry noise out of his mouth.

He dropped the thing abruptly and stood, while shaking his hand as if that would lessen the pain any. Of course, it didn't but he wasn't about to put his thumb into his mouth. God only knows where that thing had been and what kind of diseases it might be carrying.

"The hell was that...?"

"Fairies," the pig-nosed man explained in a thick accent. "That is what they do."

"Fairies," Bucky repeated with a scowl and looked at his thumb. "I thought fairies were supposed to be nice. You know that they granted wishes or something. I never figured that they'd bite."

The pig-nosed man humphed dismissively, and continued to spray at the fairies that wafted in the breeze like dandelion florets. Each one let out a cry of distress, yet Bucky didn't dare to try and pick one up again.

"Hey, maybe you can help me with something."

"Perhaps not,"

"Can you help me get through the labyrinth?"

"Who are you?" The pig-nosed man stopped his chore, in order to look at Bucky over the top of his lenses critically.

"The name's James, but everyone calls me Bucky." He explained, although he left off the part where neither his ma or Howard called him that if they could help it.

Bucky had been a nickname his dad had given him when he was a baby. It was definitely a better alternative to Jamie or J. B. like his ma tried to call him when he was about twelve years old. And well, it was a keepsake from his dad so he'd be Bucky until his dying breath.

"Thought so," the pig-nosed man muttered disinterestedly.

"And what's your name, pal?"

"They call me Zola."

"So," Bucky stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, ignoring the sting of the fairy bite. "Do you know where the door to the labyrinth is?"

Zola muttered something under his breath. It sounded like he was counting the number of fairies that he was incapacitating with his spray bottle. He didn't seem very interested in helping Bucky any. He wasn't really surprised, though.

"Well, where is it?"

"Where is what?"

"The door,"

"What door?" Zola shuffled after a wayward fairy, which caused Bucky to grit his teeth in building frustration.

Time was ticking away from him already. He needed to get into the labyrinth right now; he needed all the time he could get at this point. Rebecca was counting on him since he was the one who got them into this situation in the first place. So it was his responsibility to make amends.

Before he could do anything rash, Bucky elected to take several deep breaths and not to lose his cool. If he decided to put his hands on the only person who could help him, he knew the likely outcome to that – he'd never get into the labyrinth and Rebecca would be lost forever.

"You know, the door into the labyrinth." He breathed out. "But maybe you really don't know. Maybe this is all hopeless."

"Not if you ask the right questions."

"Okay then, how do I get into the labyrinth?"

"Ah," Zola turned towards him with a pleased look. "Now that's more like it."

Relief washed over Bucky immediately, even though he would have liked to slug the look right off Zola's face for jerking him around unnecessarily. Did it really matter how he posed the question? But he supposed Zola had to be one of the Goblin King's lackeys that was trying to stall him in every way imaginable.

Setting aside the bottle onto the bone-dry earth, Zola hobbled towards the wall of stone and rapped his knuckles against it. In the aftermath of Zola's actions, an entrance-way began to form in a broad arch in front of the two of them. Bucky gaped in wonder; there wasn't any other explanation behind it now - it really was magic.

Without a thought against the contrary, Bucky stepped forward to enter the labyrinth. He honestly didn't have a strategy on how he intended on getting to the castle. He wasn't much of a planner, however there probably wasn't a really good strategy on getting through an enchanted maze anyway.

"You truly intend on going in there?" Zola asked when Bucky was about to cross the threshold into the labyrinth.

"I really don't have much of a choice." He glanced back at Zola, who looked both amused and somber; maybe he knew that he might not actually make it to the castle in time.

Uncertainty and apprehension overtook Bucky for a moment, once he stepped fully into the labyrinth and looked to his left and then his right. There was nothing extravagant about the inside of the maze; there was only black stone as far as the eye could see on either end, accented by old, stunted vines and brittle tree branches that originated from another side of the wall.

"So which way should I take, pal?"

"That's entirely up to you." Zola sniffed in distaste. "Either way, I doubt you'll be able to get through the labyrinth anyway."

Bucky had been told on several occasions that he had a hot-head. Generally though, he managed to keep his cool. Or he had been able to before his life had been turned upside down of late. So it wasn't entirely unexpected that he almost gave himself whiplash in order to look down at Zola.

His intimidation tactic didn't work any on the little man. In fact, he only looked annoyed by the way Bucky was staring him down. And you would think that anyone with that kind of body type built for punting far distances like a football would be a tad cautious of what he said and did.

"Yeah, well you've never met anyone like me, Zorro." Bucky sneered, before he decided on the direction that he wanted to go in.

As he headed to the right, he heard Zola squawk out how his name wasn't Zorro; which was soon followed by the entrance into the maze shutting closed with a dull boom. Bucky rolled his eyes, although he counted his rebuttal as a victory; even if he had chosen not to be as vicious as he could ultimately be.

Soon enough the encounter faded out of his consciousness. The labyrinth spread out ahead of him in a never-ending picture. Not much changed in terms of the stone's consistency. The vines and tree branches curled in on themselves at certain points, before they grew barren and crumbled away, and then reappeared in all their gnarled glory.

Even with the progress that he was making, Bucky realized that he wasn't getting any closer to the end of this particular portion of the maze. Not only that, he didn't see any twists or turns that he had when the Goblin King shown him the labyrinth and the castle from Rebecca's nursery.

Confused, he started to pick up the pace. Surely he wasn't standing in place; he saw some differences in the environment already. But even so, he seemed to be going nowhere at all. He seemed to be stuck in a hamster wheel with no way out.

Bucky broke out into a run then. He pushed himself to the absolute limit until his thighs and calves howled with an undeniable burn, and he developed a stitch in his side. Sweat beaded on his brow and the back of his tee-shirt clung uncomfortably in between his shoulder blades. But still he didn't get any closer to a turn or a bend; there was only a straight pathway that continued on and on indefinitely.

When the physical exertion became too much for him to handle, Bucky's pace changed from a sprint, to a normal run, and eventually a limping trot before he came to a halt. His breathing was labored and a tad painful, although it was nothing compared to the frustration he was feeling at full-force now.

Was this his punishment for taunting the Goblin King? Would he be forever lost in the labyrinth while Rebecca was subjected to unknown horrors up in the castle? He supposed that was a very real possibility, and it made his heart fall because he was the reason behind this.

"Damn," he breathed out, as he slouched against the wall. "Damn, damn, damn, _fuck,"_

The last expletive was punctuated by Bucky turning to face the wall, and slapping an open palm to the sun baked stone. It sent a painful reverberation through his hand and up his forearm; however, that didn't dissuade him from slapping the wall over and over again until the ache was enough to take his breath away.

"Hey," a small voice exclaimed rather abruptly and interrupted his tantrum.

Taken aback by the greeting, Bucky whipped around and looked up and down the labyrinth. There was no one to be seen from his position, which made him question the validity of what he had heard in the first place. He might have imagined it out of sheer desperation.

It would have been nice to find a helping hand through the labyrinth, but he wasn't going to hold his breath. If they were as helpful as Zola then he'd be better off going it alone. He probably couldn't trust anyone anyway; they probably worked for the Goblin King after all.

"I must be losing my mind already."

"I'd only said hey." The voice spoke up again, and sent Bucky into a semi-circle before he found the source of the sound.

Haphazardly balanced on an almost indiscernible groove in the wall was a figure in a red, black, and silver suit. Bucky leaned in to see what exactly it was, and he was surprised to see that the figure was a man in a space looking suit with a silver helmet on his head; the face plate was lifted up to reveal the man's smiling face.

"I barely even heard you."

"I figured as much; no hard feelings, I guess."

"Hey, would you happen to know your way through here?" Bucky asked, hopeful and desperate.

"Sorry, I don't. I'm kind of on the wrong side of an enchantment right now. I'm lucky to have befriended some of the ants around here in order to survive." The man explained with obvious regret.

"But you should at least know about this place."

"Are you saying you want me to go on this valiant quest you're on?" The man smiled broadly. "Sounds like fun; my name's Scott, by the way."

"Bucky,"

"Nice to meet you, Bucky." Scott held out his hand, although he soon realized his blunder and laughed while he pulled his hand back. "It's been a while since I've been around anyone normal sized. But if you wouldn't mind me riding on your shoulder, I think that'll work out best. And hey, we can actually here one another better."

Bucky consented to the arrangement almost immediately, and pivoted his body so his left shoulder was hovering beside the wall. He felt Scott scramble onto him within a matter of seconds, and he slowly stood back to his full height.

Scott let out a breathless laugh, as if he was waiting for a lifetime to be taken away from his crack in the wall. At least now that Scott was with him, Bucky wouldn't be close to losing his damn mind. Or at least the process would be a hell of a lot slower.

"Oh by the way," Scott began. "Not all these walls are solid, you know. Take that one in front of you for example, it isn't exactly impenetrable."

Quirking his eyebrow at this revelation, Bucky started towards the wall. That's when he noticed there was a break that led into another alley. It was an optical illusion of some sort, and Bucky knew he'd never catch it himself so he had a lot to be thankful for now that Scott was with him.

He whooped in excitement and adopted a trot to start down the way. All hope wasn't lost; he had a fighting chance yet, and he was determined to beat the Goblin King.


End file.
